January 19, 2010
January 13, 2010
Sleep Training Redux
We have been trying to get Jackson to fall asleep on his own at night ever since he turned 4 or 5 months. Some nights are better than others but our approach to date has been inconsistent.
I recently purchased "The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5" and read it in one sitting. It is a variation on the Ferber method, but offers a gentler tone that I felt more comfortable with. We've been practicing the approach for naps and bedtimes. We used to lull him to sleep for all the naps, taking on average about 5-10 minutes. It seemed easy but his naps were usually 30-40 minutes. Now we set him down and let him cry for a few minutes (sometimes longer). His naps are now about 1-1.5 hours, giving us more downtime during the day.
Jackson's bedtime has also shifted in the last few months from as late as 9pm to 7:30pm these days. We're hoping that he wakes up after 7am, but so far it's been a bit earlier (today was 5am - yikes!) I'm also in the process of weaning the 4am feeding which is extremely difficult. Since we're currently sharing a room with him in Sydney, letting him cry in the morning and not going to him is really tough. Needless to say, we're pretty tired since we don't go to bed at 7:30pm with him.
When I look back on months 1-3, I would've killed just to have 4 hours of consecutive sleep. So all in all I am really thrilled at the progress to date, especially with the travels we're doing.
I recently purchased "The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5" and read it in one sitting. It is a variation on the Ferber method, but offers a gentler tone that I felt more comfortable with. We've been practicing the approach for naps and bedtimes. We used to lull him to sleep for all the naps, taking on average about 5-10 minutes. It seemed easy but his naps were usually 30-40 minutes. Now we set him down and let him cry for a few minutes (sometimes longer). His naps are now about 1-1.5 hours, giving us more downtime during the day.
Jackson's bedtime has also shifted in the last few months from as late as 9pm to 7:30pm these days. We're hoping that he wakes up after 7am, but so far it's been a bit earlier (today was 5am - yikes!) I'm also in the process of weaning the 4am feeding which is extremely difficult. Since we're currently sharing a room with him in Sydney, letting him cry in the morning and not going to him is really tough. Needless to say, we're pretty tired since we don't go to bed at 7:30pm with him.
When I look back on months 1-3, I would've killed just to have 4 hours of consecutive sleep. So all in all I am really thrilled at the progress to date, especially with the travels we're doing.
January 9, 2010
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